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| Hiking | 10.00 Miles |
5,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.00 Miles | 7 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.33 mph |
| 5,000 ft AEG | | 30 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | My original plan was to do Cactus to Clouds. Wednesday night, all ready to go, parked at lot across the street from the Palm Springs art museum, set to crash for the night and wake up early to get started up the Skyline trail. I decided to double check the Tram schedule, and..."CLOSED for annual maintenance", "Tentative" opening on Saturday. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") With that bit of bad news, I needed a plan B. I was not going to hike 10,000 AEG and then back down into the heat. A quick internet search of alternate trails up to Mt. San Jacinto peak and I was driving around the mountain to Idyllwild. I parked at the trail head and slept in the back of the truck and got started at 7am. Great trail and perfect weather! I came across a Conservation Corps crew building a new trail about 3/4 the way up, chainsaws and jackhammers were not the sounds I expected to hear on my way to the top. Then around Little Round valley I ran into a very nice couple from Australia on their way back down after summiting. I got to the top at 2:30 pm after 7:30 hours  . Cool and breezy up top with views to die for. Simply amazing 360 degree views of Palm Springs, Banning, San Bernardino, Idyllwild, Salton Sea etc. I had the summit to myself for about 15 minutes then I was joined by a gentleman who was doing the day hike thing. After numerous photos and standing on top of the world, I went back down to Little Round Valley and set up camp. I forgot my thermometer, but based on internet weather search I'd agree it got down into the low 40's. With nice down top and bottom quilts, I was warm in my hammock. Despite my warmth, I didn't sleep well, I am assuming due to not acclimatizing to the altitude. Kept waking up feeling short of breath. Anyway, woke up and got started back down around 9am and made it back to the truck by 12:30. A lot of folks heading up, met some nice people whom I might hike with soon. Over all a great hike with awesome views! Highly recommend it! |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
absolutely insane! (No disrespect intended). I drove up Thursday and truck camped at a site adjacent to Grandview Tower. Woke up a little later than intended (top quilt was way too comfy and warm) and drove to the small parking lot/picnic area on 64 near the entrance to Yaki pt./SKTH. I planned to hike and return to catch the Blue shuttle from BATH to the visitor center and then catch the Orange shuttle to South Kaibab TH. I knew time would be the issue. As I found out later, time and electrolytes would be the issue. I Hit the trail at 6am and it was cool to see all the headlamps heading down the trail. I also quickly found out that I was about 1 minute behind the mule train...made for some careful stepping. 
I made it to the river at 8:30 am, did some photo ops then ate a snack before the ascent to Utah Flats route. The climb to Utah Flats took a bit longer than I had anticipated and I started doing the time calculations in my head, knowing my ascent up BAT would be ~5 hrs. Also, I started feeling cramps in my middle back. As much as it pained me to turn around, I felt it was in my best interest considering the shuttle schedule and now my apparent lack of electrolytes feeling in my back. I returned to Phantom Ranch cafe and enjoyed my $4 lemonade and consumed everything I had that had sodium in it. Restocked on water and headed back across the bridge to the BAT at around 1:30 pm. Hiking up the weather began to turn and it started to rain with thunder and lightning just after Indian Garden. The thunder sounded amazing in the canyon and the rain felt SO good 
Anyway, I made it on time, with Orange bus driver waiting for me, only passenger and last bus...whew! I'm not sure I would have walked the 5 miles back to my truck if I had missed that bus. I truck camped again and drove home the next morning.
We car camped then headed down into the canyon bright and early hoping to get to the camp site at the gardens first. 
We passed a group of 3-4 camped near the power lines, then a couple camped at canyon edge and another vehicle was parked at canyon edge too, so we were thinking our chances at the Gardens camp site were slim.
So we made do at an adjacent spot and embarked on a great weekend filled with tents, hammocks, hikes, kayak, rock jumping and some Rye and cigars once jr. went to sleep! 
hmmm? We offered our help, but they swore they would be ok.
